Sanskrit Manuscripts : Śivadharma corpus

Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> This palm-leaf manuscript of a clearly early date (possibly 12th century) contains the <i>Śivadharma corpus</i>. The corpus, whose earlier texts possibly originated around the 6th century, usually contains from six to eight texts and deals with religious practices and doctrinal issues of the lay <i>śaiva</i> community. The present manuscript is a composite one, probably constituted as such in order to form a complete corpus of eight texts (with an additional hymn, the <i>Yogasārastava</i>, also inserted in the body of the collection) The first codicological unit contains these text: <div> <i>Śivadharmaśāstra</i> <br /> <i>Śivadharmottara</i> <br /> <i>Yogasārastava</i> <br /> <i>Śivadharmasaṃgraha</i> <br /> <i>Umāmaheśvarasaṃvāda</i> <br /> <i>Vṛṣasārasaṃgraha</i> <br /> <i>Uttarottaramahāsaṃvāda</i> <br /> <i>Dharmaputrikā</i>.<br /> </div><br /> The kernel ends with the <i>Dharmaputrikā</i> on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(483);return false;'>folio 244r</a>. The second codicological unit contains only the <i>Śivopaniṣad</i>, is foliated as 126-142 and Moreover, what was originally folio 169 of the kernel has been placed as a cover to the whole manuscript, his writing being mainly faded (although the beginning of the <i>Śivopaniṣad</i> has been overwritten in a much more recent hand on the first one and half lines of the folio). This manuscript represents one of the oldest extant instances of the <i>Śivadharma corpus</i>. </p>